The Implantable Medical Devices (IMD's) are instruments or apparatus or implants that are implanted inside body to diagnose or treat any disease or disorder present in the body. For proper functioning of these devices inside the body, sufficient power must be provided continuously by using suitable means such as batteries, power capacitors and so on. In some cases, these power sources can be placed outside the body and transmit energy pulses to the implanted devices through a receiver or a lead.
Over an extended period of time, these power sources may deplete which results in the implanted medical device not getting power. Due to this issue, the implanted medical device stops functioning permanently which in turn puts the patient's life at danger. Hence, the power sources must be powered or recharged periodically to ensure proper functioning of IMDs inside the body.
Normally, every IMD possesses a rechargeable battery which powers up the device. There are so many techniques through which this power sources i.e. rechargeable battery can be recharged. In some of the existing recharging mechanisms, piezoelectric effect based charging process is used. In some other existing systems, induction coils are placed with the implanted medical devices to supply power and theses coils are heated whenever the coils get discharged.
However, in the existing systems, input supply to charge the battery is provided continuously even if the battery is fully charged. This may have an adverse impact on the battery life, as it increases load on the battery. This in turn affects functioning of the IMD and this scenario may demand replacement of the battery or the IMD itself, which requires the patient to undergo a surgery. This is inconvenient in terms of factors such as cost incurred, health effects for patient and so on.